Steve S.

The ride yesterday was great. That was Mike and me at Packards grabbing a bite after the ride -- good food and conversation. Not seeing the ride announcement until yesterday morning, I was in a rush get out the door and just grabbed my GPS and power cord without checking the batteries. I'd used the GPS on a ride 3 weeks ago, and figured regardless of how much charge was in the batteries that my power cord was really all I needed. Turned out I was wrong. Even plugged in to any of three 12v outlets which I knew were all working, the dang GPS would turn off after only a minute or two. When I got home I did some experimenting and discovered that regardless of having 12v power, the 60Csx will shut off if it does not have some minimal voltage from the AA batteries and it will not even turn on with 12v power if the batteries are removed. Learn something new every day! Below are a couple of my photos from the ride. A few more are in the album on photo bucket here

I'd been keeping an eye on this tech too. I had also understood the batteries would last some 300K miles. My round trip commute is just under 100 miles per day, but with freeway speeds the range on electric bikes for a single charge didn't seem to be reliable for the distance I need to cover. My employer has not been receptive to installing outlets for electric vehicles, so I have to assume that I'd need to make the round trip on a single charge. It looked like the 2013 S model might go the distance with the up-sized battery if I keep the speed down on the freeway to a bit less than what I'd normally feel safe doing in traffic. But I never met anyone riding the bike who could tell me if the real world range figures for a ride like mine were adequate. Now that they have added the powertank option to the Zero S for the 2014 model year, this is the first time I could consider buying such a bike for my commute that could go the range and not require me to ride slower than I'd feel safe doing. Hopefully the tax incentives from 2012 and 2013 will soon be extended for 2014. Coincidentally I've recently been splitting lanes down Miramar on the way home with a gal riding a Brahma Empulse. The bike looked nice, but I don't think it has nearly the range of a Zero.

Just saw this this morning. Think I can get myself over there on time. Blue '09 KLR.

I've never been to Supercross either. My wife, daughter and I (along with a bunch of my daughter's team mates and their parents) have been working as non-profit volunteers fundraising for my daughter's high school cheer team by operating a concession stand at the stadium for Charger home games, a few college games, and the monster truck event. Supercross will be our final event for this fundraiser. Much to my surprise at the monster truck event, many of the usual stands and amenities were in fact closed that had previously been open for all of the football games (Margaritaville stand, the bulk of the food trucks, several of the hot dog/beer/soda counters, etc). From that recent experience, I am expecting that Supercross may have similarly downsized concessions as well. That said, I would hope club level would still have some of there upscale facilities open. Our concession stand faces the outside of the stadium at ground level near the score board. Fortunately we can pop open the back door which opens into the stadium and get an occasional glimpse of what is going on. So I'm hoping to get to enjoy at least a little bit of the Supercross event as a first timer. The pits for monster trucks were also near our stand, but just outside of the stadium wall in the parking lot near the trolly station. I know they were open for fans with the proper pass to walk through, and I heard good comments from customers who had visited the pits. I can only guess as to whether the experience will be equally good for Supercross pit visits. Hopefully someone who attended in the past can provide more detail. Have fun!

I didn't see this thread or hear about the showing until the SDAR meeting last night. Unfortunately it is already sold out. I may try to go to the showing in Long Beach on Feb 6th instead. http://www.tugg.com/events/7432

I will be there, arriving incognito on my daily commuter Ninja instead of the adventure bike. Just remembered that I never did get a membership card. It may be too late asking today, but any chance of getting one at the meeting? It would be nice to finally have for getting the discounts at the local shops.

I put on a fresh D606 rear and Unicross front on my '09 KLR before slabbing from San Diego to Colorado for the COBDR back in August. Had to abort COBDR after 2 days due to charging system failure and slabbed it back to San Diego. So that was around 2K miles of slab getting there and back plus the dirt/gravel miles on 2 days of COBDR -- with the bike heavily loaded with camping gear. The D606 still has enough tread on it that I will keep it on the bike for either the sdadv DV trip (if I can swing it) or the advrider Noob rally in march. From my experience I think a fresh set of D606's will easily get you to, through and back from DV.

We have taken a '94 DR350 with stock gearing on two trips to DV along with my KLR. The DR350 stock gearing was fine doing a loop to Hunter Mountain to Tea Kettle/Race Track and Ubehebe crater then slab back to PSR (once on each visit), a loop to Chloride Cliffs and then down Titus Canyon with lots of slab, and a flat loop of West Side Rd and back to camp on slab via Badwater. Did not have a chance to do do lippencott or golar wash with it, but I'm inclined to think the stock gearing would be OK on those too. As for the open roads - the rangers will give tickets, so if you are watching the speed limit then the stock gearing is adequate. The biggest issue was range (there is no fuel at Scotty's Castle), so we carried gas cans and a siphon just in case we had to transfer fuel from the KLR. We just put an Acerbis desert tank (4.2 gallons) on the bike today, so it won't be as much of an issue on the upcoming trips.

My son and I did the ADV noob rally last year (just one week after he got his MC permit -- he won the youngest attendee prize) and we're going again at the end of March. I also had the pleasure of doing the DV un-rally last Jan/Feb which included a few others from here. So I'm hooked. Unless there is an insurmountable schedule conflict when the dates are finally set, count me in. I might have 2 other riders as well (my son and/or a friend who did the un-rally with me last year).

PS -- don't use this part often, but I think for at least two of them we have the extra 'sides' that can be attached to block sun/wind/view of junk behind the pop up.

Sounds like you have some good offers, but I'll chime in too... I've got 3 or 4 white pop ups available for use that are stored at the Fallbrook airport. I can bring them down to Bonsall Saturday morning (I live 1 mile from airport and not much further down the road to Bonsall) and pick them back up when you are done on Saturday. Least I can do for you showing me around on one of the noob rides a while back! :-) Here are links to pictures of two of them at an airport event so you can see how they look: Steve

This meteor shower gets its name from the appearance that the meteors look as if they are originating from the constellation Perseus. Until 11PM or so Perseus is rather low in the northeastern sky and continues to climb higher as the night progresses. As a result, the viewing tends to improve as the constellation rises in the sky. You can spot meteors earlier in the evening, it is just that you are likely to see more and better meteors later when the 'radiant' is higher in the sky. The meteors don't actually come from Perseus, but just give that appearance -- they really originate from the comet Swift-Tuttle. The marine layer made viewing last night/this morning a non-starter for me in Fallbrook. I might go up to Palomar tonight to get above the clouds.

It is a KLR weekend... I'm taking mine out to start the COBDR on Sunday! First camping off the bike for a week trip for me. I have taken my KLR on one of the Escondido BMW outings... they didn't mind at all having other bikes along. It was interesting watching brand new big GS bikes with all the farkles being dropped by riders who had never been on a fire road before.

Unfortunately I believe most of the forest roads around Big Bear require street legal plated bikes. There is an OHV park at Cactus Flats where non-plated MC and ATVs can be used -- and I think you can camp there. This is just off the 18 as you head north from Big Bear and start down hill towards the Lucern Valley. The Big Bear Discovery Center on the north side of the lake provides a free paper map that shows the various forest roads, trails and the OHV park along with their restrictions. You will also need a forest service Adventure Pass (available from the Discovery Center or other sporting goods stores) in order to park your car/truck at the OHV park or out on the forest roads. The Discover Center would be the best place to start for info on restrictions, open/closed areas, etc. Their number is (909) 382-2790. Big Bear is addicting... have fun and many happy returns! Steve

The sandy section between Hunter and Tea Kettle is a bit deeper now (rode it on the 30th as part of the advrider event) than it was two months ago (rode it on February 5th as part of DV Days). That is really the only challenging part of that route if you aren't comfortable with sand. Be sure to take the side trail over to Hunter Cabin. Titus is easy -- less fine sand at the bottom narrow sections now than there was back in February -- easy noob riding there. We did have a few noobs drop bikes on the way to Chloride Cliffs in one or two sections that were a little challenging. I need to post up a ride report from the advrider event on the 30th... I might be in for this, possibly with my son. Have to wait a bit for schedules to firm up... If we go we would trailer the bikes and could bring firewood.

Looks like a couple of us are going to Death Valley for this weekend's AdvRider Noob Rally. I'll be in spot #72 with my son Brandon. We'll be in a tent, but they put us in an RV spot because we're towing the bikes up. We should have extra room if anyone that is riding up wants us to carry some extra gear for them. Planning to leaving Fallbrook early Thursday morning and hoping to arrive in time to go on the afternoon ride to Osborne cabin. So who else is going?

At the last minute we're finding out my son has an exam in his first period class on Thursday, so he'll take the exam and then we'll hit the road out of Fallbrook around 8:30 or 9 instead of daybreak. Towing the KLR650 and DR350 with a silver Rav4. Looks like we'll now get there too late for the Osborne Cabin ride we signed up for. Ride and drive safe!

I do carry a small hotel shampoo bottle that has been filled with tire changing lube. It does work well in the garage and on the trail.

A buddy went with me to Death Valley Daze last month. He borrowed my more recently acquired DR350 for most of the event while I rode my KLR650 -- until we swapped bikes at Tea Kettle Junction. He only rode the KLR for a few miles before the rear went flat... we joked that I did that on purpose. I was actually further ahead in the pack at the point he got the flat, so it was maybe 15 minutes before I circled back to find him at the side of the road with one other rider from our group. The bulk of the tools were packed on the KLR. He had already found and used my Eagle Mike jack stand and had the wheel off by the time I pulled up. First time it had been used on the trail. It worked really well and I was impressed he figured out what it was and how to use it since he really had no idea what he was going to find in my tool pack. I had a the 21" spare tube for the front which we used for the 17" rear -- that worked just fine too.

Very nice! There is nothing like the sound of a B-17 flying overhead... but what a treat to get to fly in one!

I spoke with Randy and GP... heading down soon to pick the items up and deliver them to DD this afternoon.

I was supposed to be out of town this weekend but my schedule has changed a bit. I will still be out of town on Saturday, but I could help out on Sunday. Do you still need another sweep rider for Sunday?

I picked up a mobile ham radio, but still need to take the test (hoping to fit it in March 2nd or March 9th). So I'll be listening but not transmitting. Coming from getting my son signed in at the Palomar MSF class, I'm likely to hook up with Desertrunner at 76 & Valley Center Rd and then try to catch the group at the Hideout, guessing about 9:15. If you can transmit an occasional status that would help us catch up to you. I'll be on a blue KLR650 (still a little muddy from Death Valley).

My 16 year old son is taking the MSF class at Palomar this weekend. I have to be there at 8AM on Saturday to sign a waiver and get him into the class (not sure how long that will actually take), but might be able to head from there to the Hideout to catch up to the group for the rest of the ride. If the group leaves Ramona at 8:30, any idea when you think you'd be arriving/leaving the Hideout? Guessing 9:15-9:30 or so?

It was a blast! Weather could not have been better. Riding conditions where great. Made new friends and had a great experience. Still have to look through pictures and helmet video to see if I got anything worthy of posting in the ride write ups area...